Three years prison for Norwalk woman who supplied heroin to overdose victim

Updated 3:41 pm, Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Lori Ledonne, 54, of Norwalk, was sentenced to three years in prison in the heroin overdose of 22-year-old Easton resident Kadeelyn Konstantino in Norwalk in February 2017.

Lori Ledonne, 54, of Norwalk, was sentenced to three years in prison in the heroin overdose of 22-year-old Easton resident Kadeelyn Konstantino in Norwalk in February 2017.

Photo: Contributed Photo / Norwalk Police Department

Three years prison for Norwalk woman who supplied heroin to overdose victim

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STAMFORD — A Norwalk woman has been sentenced to three years in jail for supplying the heroin that killed a young Easton woman who overdosed earlier this year.

During an emotional hearing at the Stamford courthouse Tuesday in which the victim’s teenage sister was present, Judge Gary White handed down the prison sentence to 54-year-old Lori Ledonne, of Isaacs Street, Norwalk. Ledonne pleaded guilty this summer to second-degree manslaughter and sale of narcotics for causing the death of 22-year-old Kadeelyn Konstantino, who died on Ledonne’s bathroom floor in February.

“Today, I am standing up for what is right for my sister,” said Cassie Konstantino, 17. “I lost the one person I would want at my wedding... She already missed out on my prom.”

Konstantino said her sister struggled with mental health and physical disorders, but she was no less loved.

She called Kadeelyn a sister by chance and best friend by choice.

Konstantino said Ledonne offered to be her big sister after Kadeelyn died.

“She died in your arms,” Konstantino told Ledonne as the older woman stared straight ahead at the floor. “It sucked and you’re so very sorry. Maybe if you actually got help when you should have instead of being selfish, I’d still have a sister.”

Stamford State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo said the death of Konstantino was a tragedy that is happening more and more often amid a worsening opioid epidemic.

Police and prosecutors say many of the overdoses are being caused by ultra-potent drugs like fentanyl that are often cut with heroin and crack cocaine.

After serving her jail sentence, Ledonne will spend another seven years on Special Parole, where she can immediately be returned to prison for any violation of the law.

Ledonne did not speak at her sentencing, but her attorney Peter Billings said she was doing what she can to change her life. “Lori is taking steps to better herself and address her addiction in order to ensure she has no more problems with the court,” Billings said.

On the day of Konstantino’s death, Ledonne told police that she had purchased two bags of heroin from a man in Bridgeport — she took hers, but said she never saw Konstantino use the other, her arrest affidavit said. But a text message Konstantino wrote to a friend contradicts Ledonne’s story because Konstantino wrote to her friend that she received three bundles of heroin on that day.

The sentencing comes less than a week after Mark Lynch, 58, of New Canaan pleaded guilty to similar charges in the death of his son Christopher in Sept. 2016. He is scheduled to be sentenced to three years in jail and seven years special parole.